Former England cricketer Steve Harmison believes that New Zealand is one of the teams that the host nations India would least like to face in the semifinals of the ODI World Cup 2023, given their record against the Blackcaps in the ICC tournaments.
In the 2019 World Cup semifinal match against New Zealand, The Men in Blue, who topped the points table in England after having a good tournament in the league stage went down to a spirited bowling performance by New Zealand as the Indian top order was blown away by the New Zealand seamers to suffer heartbreaking defeat.
Speaking on Espncricinfo, Steve Harmison believes that New Zealand is a good enough team to play India in the semifinals in Mumbai and that India would not want to play the Kiwis since the players are slowly getting back to full fitness.
“A quality side like New Zealand, you can never write them off, Out of the three teams that are in the semi-finals with India, I’ve got a funny feeling that they are the one team that India wouldn’t want to play because they have character. They are all coming back to fitness,” Steve Harmison said.
In the crucial game of the ODI World Cup, New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka by a commanding five-wicket margin. With one game remaining, Pakistan can tie the Kiwis’ total points scored, although they have a worse net-run rate than New Zealand.
All The Pressure Is Now On India – Steve Harmison
Steve Harmison believes that the pressure will be on the Indian team to perform on the bigger stage. He also stated that the squad would welcome the pressure to defeat New Zealand and that, given the option, they would have avoided playing Kiwis in the semifinals.
“I wouldn’t say they are all in prime form. But on the big stage, India and New Zealand have been here before. All the pressure is now on India. Indian cricketers are used to playing under pressure so I don’t think that will harm them too much. If India had one side they didn’t want to play in the semi-final, it would be New Zealand,” Steve Harmison added.
India vs. New Zealand in the opening semi-final on Wednesday, November 15 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai is nearly certain. Despite their complete dominance in the competition thus far, the Men in Blue might not be looking forward to playing the Blackcaps in the knockout stages given their poor record against them in the ICC events.
